Long term monitoring of sites within the vicinity of Banyan Tree operations is essential to direct and assess the success of our conservation and restoration programs, as well as understand changes in response to local and global pressures such as climate change.

In the Maldives, we annually monitor coral and fish communities at 20 reef sites: ten each in North Male’ and Dhaalu Atolls. This information gives us valuable insight of long term change and impacts from bleaching events or other disturbances. Following the bleaching event in 2016, our surveys allow us to compare reef recovery rates across different sites.

Information gathered is used in our education and public awareness programs to increase reef stewardship. Data is collected to stringent scientific guidelines and is used to both validate our citizen science efforts, plus direct our conservation and restoration efforts. Comparison with data collected from other Banyan Tree sites will reveal trends on a regional and global scale.